I’m not sure that stage magicians were exactly ripe for skewering — their social relevance beyond maybe Las Vegas seems minimal at this point — but just in case you had a particular magician you’d like to see taken down a peg or two, here’s the woeful “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone,” taking shots at that so-and-so for your viewing pleasure. Really, it’s baffling that a group of folks so funny can come together and create something like this, but as it happens time and time again in Hollywood, I should stop being so surprised. You expect, I don’t know, a baseline competency though — even “Evan Almighty” had more jokes than this.

Steve Carell stars as the title character, a complacent and arrogant stage magician who alienates his longtime assistant, Anton (Steve Buscemi), and falls on hard times as a solo act. With the emergence of a brash, David Blaine-like street magician (Jim Carrey) and the loss of his cushy Vegas show, Wonderstone is out of work, but by volunteering at an old folks’ home and meeting his childhood idol (Alan Arkin), he rekindles his love of illusion and plots to find a way back to the top, but as a decent guy this time around.

Carell excels at playing oblivious jerks, but even by those standards, Wonderstone is too distant and unlikeable as a character — it’s not fun to see him humiliated, and it’s not fun to see him redeem himself. The supporting cast might as well be window dressing; it takes a special kind of obliviousness to have a supporting character, played by Olivia Wilde, whose character arc is all about not wanting to be “the girl,” or the magician’s assistant, and have that character be reduced to the tertiary romantic lead. $28.98 DVD, $35.99 Blu-ray.

“THE CALL”

Halle Berry gets a decent starring role for the first time in a while in the better-than-average “The Call,” a nifty thriller that sadly does what all nifty thrillers seem to do these days and missteps into something awfully generic in its closing 20 minutes or so. Still, the first part of this film is surprisingly clever and genuinely taut, courtesy of indie director Brad Anderson (“The Machinist,” “Session 9”), a guy I like a whole lot, finally making a studio film. Maybe that’s why it’s not as interesting as his best work, and it feels like a job for hire, but he knows how important momentum is in a thriller like this, and the whole thing never fully collapses.

Berry stars as a Los Angeles 911 phone operator who makes a mistake during a home invasion that costs a young girl her life. A few months later, she gets a call from a panicked teen (Abigail Breslin) who has been kidnapped and put in the truck of a man’s car. (It is apparent to the audience from basically the beginning that this is the same kidnapper from the beginning of the film, and his designs for the teen are not good.)

The film is tense and compelling when Berry is offering Breslin tips to bring attention to her situation, though inevitably these fail, leading to the climax in which Berry gets directly involved — and things get considerably more formulaic. Well, it’s still a mild pleasure for the first part of the movie, and Berry’s fine in her first bearable lead role in some time. $30.99 DVD, $40.99 Blu-ray.

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“THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE”

I’m not sure that stage magicians were exactly ripe for skewering — their social relevance beyond maybe Las Vegas seems minimal at this point — but just in case you had a particular magician you’d like to see taken down a peg or two, here’s the woeful “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone,” taking shots at that so-and-so for your viewing pleasure. Really, it’s baffling that a group of folks so funny can come together and create something like this, but as it happens time and time again in Hollywood, I should stop being so surprised. You expect, I don’t know, a baseline competency though — even “Evan Almighty” had more jokes than this.

Steve Carell stars as the title character, a complacent and arrogant stage magician who alienates his longtime assistant, Anton (Steve Buscemi), and falls on hard times as a solo act. With the emergence of a brash, David Blaine-like street magician (Jim Carrey) and the loss of his cushy Vegas show, Wonderstone is out of work, but by volunteering at an old folks’ home and meeting his childhood idol (Alan Arkin), he rekindles his love of illusion and plots to find a way back to the top, but as a decent guy this time around.

Carell excels at playing oblivious jerks, but even by those standards, Wonderstone is too distant and unlikeable as a character — it’s not fun to see him humiliated, and it’s not fun to see him redeem himself. The supporting cast might as well be window dressing; it takes a special kind of obliviousness to have a supporting character, played by Olivia Wilde, whose character arc is all about not wanting to be “the girl,” or the magician’s assistant, and have that character be reduced to the tertiary romantic lead. $28.98 DVD, $35.99 Blu-ray.

“THE CALL”

Halle Berry gets a decent starring role for the first time in a while in the better-than-average “The Call,” a nifty thriller that sadly does what all nifty thrillers seem to do these days and missteps into something awfully generic in its closing 20 minutes or so. Still, the first part of this film is surprisingly clever and genuinely taut, courtesy of indie director Brad Anderson (“The Machinist,” “Session 9”), a guy I like a whole lot, finally making a studio film. Maybe that’s why it’s not as interesting as his best work, and it feels like a job for hire, but he knows how important momentum is in a thriller like this, and the whole thing never fully collapses.

Berry stars as a Los Angeles 911 phone operator who makes a mistake during a home invasion that costs a young girl her life. A few months later, she gets a call from a panicked teen (Abigail Breslin) who has been kidnapped and put in the truck of a man’s car. (It is apparent to the audience from basically the beginning that this is the same kidnapper from the beginning of the film, and his designs for the teen are not good.)

The film is tense and compelling when Berry is offering Breslin tips to bring attention to her situation, though inevitably these fail, leading to the climax in which Berry gets directly involved — and things get considerably more formulaic. Well, it’s still a mild pleasure for the first part of the movie, and Berry’s fine in her first bearable lead role in some time. $30.99 DVD, $40.99 Blu-ray.